The county must pay for the inmates in some way. While expanding the jail is estimated to cost $20 million, boarding an inmate out to another county jail costs $105 a day.

According to Vice Chair Michael Lane (D-Dryden), some people on the legislature are ideologically opposed to jails, but having a jail is necessary.

“It is wrong not to build the jail because then the money will be sent to other counties in boarding out costs. The existing jail needs to be upgraded and it is wrong to take our prisoners and send them to other counties; women are more likely to boarded out because they must be guarded separately from men,” Lane said.

He said that if the Legislature chooses not to expand the jail, a student could be arrested and end up being boarded out of the county.

“Renovation and expansion will cost a substantial amount of money, raising taxes, and draining resources from everything else,” said Chairman Tim Joseph (D-Ithaca). He said that jail is a failed response to crime and that alternatives such as drug courts are aimed at turning someone’s life around.

Sheriff Peter Meskill said that boarding out inmates makes it harder for attorneys, service providers, family and friends to visit the inmate.

He said that though inmates in the jail are serving time for different offenses, about 60 percent of the people in jail are waiting to be tried.

Lane also said that it is likely that the Rockefeller Drug laws will be repealed. These laws, enacted in 1973, call for harsh prison terms for even minor drug-related offenses with no discretion from judges even if there is no history of violent behavior.

Most of the people sentenced under these laws are sent to state penitentiaries, but if the laws are changed, it is likely that more people will be serving time in local jails.

Some argue that the Alternatives to Incarceration Program and drug courts should decrease the jail population, however this point has been contested. “We thought that alternative programs would decrease the number of people in jail, but this has not been the case; when the population increased in jails, it also increased in the programs,” said Kathy Leinthall, director of the Department of Probation and Community Justice.

Related

ByNovember 24, 2004

Why do movies about dancing have to be so horrible? Is there some sort of secret contract that Hollywood producers sign with directors and actors to ensure that any movie having anything to do with professional dancing will suck? All I can say is thank God I just get to bitch about this rather than seeing any actual movie. A few weeks ago Shall We Dance came out starring hottie Richard Gere and the bootylicious Jennifer Lopez, plus Susan Sarandon to make every woman over the age of 40 feel good. Right away there are several clues that this movie is going to suck, aside from the inclusion of dancing. When was the last time Richard Gere was in a really successful blockbuster movie that didn’t co-star Julia Roberts? Exactly, Chicago. And what was the last movie that J. Lo was in that didn’t cause me to want to rip out my own eyeballs? Any brain cells that I possess which are that old have thankfully been killed off in various ways. Then there’s the premise: Do I really care about middle-aged people and how they need to spice up their draggy marriages? Nope. So what’s the point of this movie? To take money from couples consisting of women who insist that Susan Sarandon still looks good and men who want to see close-ups of J. Lo’s shaking derriere, apparently. The plot pretends to examine the life of Joe Wall Street and his growing discontent about his boring, repetitive, passionless life. If this were actually true I might have some respect for this film, but it’s just gratuitous Hollywood crap shined up to attract viewers. I don’t think anyone under the age of 30 was stupid enough to see this flick. Well, I’m sure someone could prove me wrong, but since admitting to seeing this movie would be admitting stupidity, I’m going to assume it’s not going to happen. Perhaps I’m being too cruel to dancing movies in general and this movie in particular. So let’s look at some more examples and see the quality level of each. Just this past year marked the release of the highly touted Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, a sequel made with no brain but a big advertising budget. Because that’s just what every fan wants: crappy sequels that taint the quality and memory of the original. You’d think that after The Matrix and Star Wars debacles studio execs would have figured this out, but no. Today it seems that every studio movie is made with a sequel option built in to qualify the lack of story and/or entertainment in the first as the true ending has yet to happen. Plus sequels make gobs of stinking money. Actors now regularly sign agreements to star in any number of sequels before the original movie has even been shot. What the hell was Sela Ward thinking? A few years ago I know I was enraptured with Vanessa L. Williams in Dance With Me. That one really cuts to the quick. I mean, they had Puerto Rican heartthrob singer/dancer Chayanne and it was still horrible. I think the jinx came when Vanessa Williams added the L to her name for that splash of serious actress legitimacy. As Jennifer L. Hewitt can attest, it’s a death knoll. And after having a few kids, Ms. Williams is still dead sexy, but no amount of make-up gets rid of those stretch marks that inch out from under short skirts. Shudder. All I could think whenever Kris Kristofferson was on screen was that he would be better off going back to Blade basics and offing some vampires. And who could forget Center Stage, that heart-warming account of promiscuous, bulimic ballerinas? The dancing was incredible because everyone was a real ballerina and whatever the male form of that is. Unfortunately I don’t think any of them had ever acted before. Peter Gallagher’s eyebrows have more soul and expression than any of the kids. Though it was fun to see Olympic gold medallist Ilia Kulik prance around. You just know his agent told him it was his big moment to capitalize on his fame and this part would launch his American movie career. Yeah, too bad that didn’t work out. For some reason, dancing has caught on in Hollywood as a sure-fire movie formula, right up there with comic books. And there are movies involving dancing that don’t suck like the above ones. Moulin Rouge had tons of dancing and it makes me slightly light-headed just to think of how awesome it is. Of course, it’s a musical, so maybe the trick is to have singing with the dancing; seemed to work for Judy Garland and Gene Kelly. I’d like to see some more singing to go with the dancing since I don’t think dance has managed to make it on its own as a movie genre. Especially since in this article I’ve been selective enough to leave out great dancing movies such as Strictly Ballroom and The Company that would make it harder for me to prove my point. Archived article by Sue KarpSun Staff Writer

ByNovember 24, 2004

I gave in and bought a bus pass about three weeks into the year. I figured that having one friend with a car wasn’t going to cut it for ten months. And then a week ago I lost my card. In fact, it fell out of my card holder while I sprinted for the bus. Exasperated, I went to Willard Straight where I bought the pass to get a new one. I figured that they must be used to students like me who lose their ID cards and subsequently their two-hundred dollar bus passes, ingeniously stuck on the back. Why couldn’t we have had some sort of thumbprint system or retinal eye scan? Even I could never lose that. But just to make it difficult for people without a car who actually need the bus, TCAT requires people to go to the transportation office for replacement passes. Let me tell you, it’s no quick jaunt. Foreseeing a busy week, I made a temporary pass for myself with a color copier, a friend’s pass and some scotch tape. A week passed, and finally I gathered my strength and made out for the hinterlands. To save time I went by the baseball fields to get to Collegetown. Soon I realized that I needed to stop and ask for directions. I was told to take a footbridge over the gorge, and I would end up right where I wanted to be. Cursing the system, I went over to the steps and carefully made my way down the uneven wooden stairs to the bridge. When I got there I found a sign that said “Bridge Closed for Repairs” and some flattened orange fencing. The gods seemed determined to keep me and my bus pass apart. I stood for a minute and decided that the bridge looked sturdy enough, tested it with my foot and crossed it. Glad that I had evaded another obstacle, I continued along the path only to find six gigantic trees that had fallen and blocked the path. With that sunshiny ticket to anywhere in Ithaca in mind, I scanned the hill, searching for a way around the trees. I spotted my way out. I scaled the hill, climbed over three of the trees and under the other three. I followed the path, and emerged out of the woods like someone lost in the jungle who finally finds civilization, a little dazed and confused, but safe and agonizingly close to the office. I found Dryden and followed it until I finally arrived at the elusive transportation office. But my adventure does not end here. I walked in and sat down in front of a transportation man behind his desk. Relieved, I handed him my ID card as he went to get me a new sticker. But obviously cursed, I had forgotten to take off my temporary creation! He turned the card over to find my not-so-excellent forgery scotch-taped to the back. I mumbled that it was not real and snatched it out of his hands to take it off and get rid of it, but he was too fast for me. He took the fake and stuck it on his keyboard to taunt me while he filled out my paperwork. Finally he picked up the paper copy pass and told me that the consequences “for this” are severe. Then he smiled, crumpled it up and tossed it in the trash. I walked out of the office, pass in hand. What have I learned from this? Those flimsy card holders from the Carol Tatkon center are tools of the devil. Archived article by Becky WolozinSun Staff Writer